Thread trimming apparatus



Aug. 23, 1966 w. N. HADLEY THREAD TRIMMING APPARATUS Original Filed Nov.21, 1963 l 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIGZ VENTOR.

WILFRED N HADLEY FIG. 5

W awe *G ATTORNEYS 8- 3, 966 w. N. HADLEY 3,267,548

TKREAD TRIMMING APPARATUS Original Filed Nov 21, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FI G. 9 INQEIQTOR.

WILFRED N; HADLEY BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,267,548 THREADTRZMMKNG APPARATUS Wilfred N. Hadley, Springfield, Vt, assignor toHadley Company, Inc, Springfield, Vt., a corporation of Vermont Originalapplication Nov. 21, 1963, Ser. No. 325,407, now Patent No. 3,136,057,dated June 1, 1965. Divided and this application Nov. 23, 1964, Ser. No.413,216 2 Claims. (Cl. 2615) This application is a division of US.application Ser. No. 325,407, filed November 21, 1963, now US. PatentNo. 3,186,057, and entitled, Thread Trimming Method.

The present invent-ion relates generally to the manufacture of textilegoods and more particularly is directed towards a novel apparatus fortrimming extra length threads attached to a woven web.

In weaving griege goods long hanging threads frequently appear on thesurface of the material between the selveges. Whenever a warp threadbreaks in the weaving process, the weaver has to splice the thread todraw it through the correct heddle and harness and then through thecorrect dent of the reed in order for the weaving to continue. The extralength of thread is left hanging on the top surface of the cloth as theweaving begins again and, since the weaver is usually occupied with upto 50 or more looms, he does not have time for this thread to weave inand then break the end off close to the cloth body. As a result, thesethreads are left hanging to the cloth and may be up to 2 feet or more inlength.

These long hanging threads tend to cling closely to the surface of thefabric when traveling through various idler and draft rolls. So closelydo the threads cling to the fabric that neither the induced suction fromsubsequent shearing operations or the action of the shearing bladesthemselves will pick up the free ends of the threads or any part of themto shear them off. This is especially true when the blades are dulledeven slightly. Unless the spurious threads are trimmed off by hand, atconsiderable added expense, they cause light surface streaks on thefabric when it subsequently goes under finishing and printingoperations. While various attempts have been made to remove thesethreads automatically, none of them has been to be completely effective.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a newand improved apparatus for automatically trimming lose hanging threadsattached to a woven web.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel,

self-cleaning apparatus for trimming threads from woven sheet fabrics.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel mechanismfor insuring that the proper surface of a woven fabric is fed to atrimming station.

More particularly, this invention features a novel apparatus forsnipping long hanging threads from a woven web and includes a rotarybrush mounted across the moving web and adapted to be rotated in adirection opposite to the moving web for arranging all of the freehanging threads in the same direction. Spaced behind the first brush isa second rotary brush mounted across the moving web and adapted to berotated in the same direction as the web and at a higher rate of spemi.The second brush is characterized by spaced bristle or wire clothedsectors, the leading edge of each sector being adapted to pick up a longhanging thread and tension it outwardly from the web while the thread iscarried against a knife edge extending across the web behind the secondbrush and in proximity thereto.

In addition, this invention features a resiliently mounted rollerpositioned adjacent an unwinding cradle and operatively connected withthe power system for advancing the 3,267,548 Patented August 23, 1966ice web. The roller is so positioned that the web can be wrapped overthe roller from only one feeding position. This will insure that thefabric is advanced to the machine with the proper surface exposed to thebrushes and cutter.

These and other features of the invention, along with further objectsand advantages thereof, will become more fully apparent from thefollowing detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof withreference being made to the accompanying drawings in which:

HS. 1 is a view in perspective showing a thread trimming apparatus madeaccording to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation of the FIG. 1 apparatus,

FIG. 3 is an end view of a thread snagging brush employed in theinvention,

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a modified thread trimming apparatus,

FIG. 5 is an end view showing another modification of thell'liV6I1tlOl'i,

FIG. 6 is a top plan view showing a modified thread cutting bar,

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 showing another modification of thecutting bar,

FIG. 8 is a view in end elevation showing a modified thread trimminginstallation,

FIG. 9 is a view in side elevation of an automatic feed stop mechanism,and

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the feed control system of FIG. 9.

Referring now to the drawings, the reference character 1%) generallyindicates a woven web advancing in the direction of the arrow over asupporting surface 12. The web 10 has been illustrated in the conditionthat it comes from the loom. That is to say a number of relatively longthreads 14 hang loosely by one end to the web, the opposite end beingfree. Normally, these threads will be traveling with their free end inadvance of the attached end although some may be oriented in theopposite direc tion. In any event, in order to arrange all of thethreads in the same direction with the attached ends in advance of thefree ends, a laying brush 16 extends across the web in tangentialcontact therewith.

The laying brush 16 is in the form of a roller having a cylindricalconfiguration and fabricated with a steel core having a solid perimetercovered with straight 1% staple wire bristles, for example, which extendradially outward from the surface. The laying brush 16 is supported atits ends by bearings 18 and 2d and rotated in a clockwise direction bymeans of a motor 22, a belt 24- and a pulley 26. It will be noted thatthe direction of rotation of the laying brush 16 is against the advanceof the web It) so that all of the threads 14- passing under the layingbrush will be arranged so that their attached ends will be in advance oftheir free ends as shown at 2:8.

Mounted further along the supporting surface 12 is a snagging brush 3t)spaced preferably at least 3 feet from the laying brush l6 and supportedat its ends by bearings 32 and 34. The snagging brush is fabricatedtypically with a 6" diameter steel core 36 normally carrying four brushsectors 38 in evenly spaced relation about the cylindrical surface ofthe core.

In practice, the brush sectons 38 may be straight wire bristles as shownin FIGS. 1 and 2 or, preferably, the wires may be bent as suggested inFIG. 3 to insure that each and every one of the threads 14 will besnagged by the bristles. As indicated in FIG. 3, the individual bristlesWill be bent forwardly in the direction of rotation of the snaggingbrush 30. In any event the snagging brush is rotated counterclockwise inthe direction of the cloth movement by means of a motor 40, a belt 42and a pulley 4d. The snagging brush is rotated at a speed 9 j in excessof the speed of the cloth which may be advancing at a rate of 200 to 240yards per minute. In practice, a speed of about 25% in excess of thecloth speed is desired for the snagging brush although this may bevaried depending upon the character of the fabric.

The function of the snagging brush 30 is to brush each of the threads 14outwardly from the surface of the web as they pass under the brush. Asshown in FIG. 2 each thread, as it passes under the snagging brush, ispulled first forwardly and then outwardly from the fabric with the freeend being carried around the snagging brush so that the thread istensioned erect from the web. It will be understood that with the freeend trailing the attached end of the thread and the snagging brushmoving at a faster rate than the fabric, the attached end will passunder the brush whereas the bristles will then take hold of the freeportion of the thread pulling it forwardly and around in acounterclockwise direction as the attached end moves forwardly with theweb. In this erect tensioned condition, the web carries the attachedportion of the thread forwardly and against .a cutting bar 46 to trimthe thread near the surface of the web.

The cutting bar will be seen to extend transversely across the width ofthe web and is supported at its ends by blocks 48 just above the surfaceof the fabric. The knife edge of the cutting bar extends in closeproximity to the periphery of the snagging brush 30. In this position,the knife edge is adapted to sever each of the threads 14 that arepicked up by the brush and carried against it in a tenisoned erectcondition.

In order to further enhance the ability of the snagging brush to pick upeach of the loose hanging threads 14, the laying brush 16 may be mounteddiagonally across the web 10 as suggested in FIG. 4. Typically, thelaying brush may be arranged at a 45 angle with respect to the movingweb whereby each of the threads 14 passing under the laying brush willbe brushed into a diagonal position on the web as indicated (by thereference character 48 in FIG. 4. With the threads arranged in thisfashion, the bristles of the snagging brush 30 will engage the threadsmore or less sideways rather than lengthwise thereby being more easilysnagged by the bristles.

By forming the snagging brush 30 with a number of spaced bristle sectors38, each sector presents a corner or leading edge 50 which will alsoimprove the ability of the brush to snag and pick up the threads passingunder the brush. It will be appreciated that the segmented arrangementof the snagging brush will be more efficient in picking up threads thanwould be the case if bristles covered the entire cylindrical surface ofthe core. Moreover, accumulated threads are easily removed from thebrush by the operator stopping the snagging brush and cutting with aknife or scissors between a pair of sectors and then strip-ping off thethreads.

While norm-ally the extraneous threads 14 will appear only on the uppersurface of the fabric, it may happen from time to time that some loosehanging threads will appear on the opposite side of the web by reason ofthe roll of fabric being placed backwards in an unwinding cradle. Inorder to insure that threads on both sides of the fabric are trimmed,the same thread snagging arrangement may be repeated on the oppositeside of the fabric as suggested in FIG. 5. Thus a laying brush 16 willbe placed on either side of the web as will be a snagging brush 30 and acutting bar 46.

In FIGS. 6 and 7 there are illustrated two modifications of the cuttingbar. In the FIG. 6 embodiment, a cutting bar 52 is slidably supportedbetween blocks 54 and connected to a suitable oscillating drivemechanism 56 whereby the bar may be driven back and forth as indicatedby the arrows. It will be understood that for certain types of materialsthe oscillating cutting edge will provide a more efiicient shearingaction than a fixed cutting edge.

In the FIG. 7 embodiment a sickle bar is provided for trimming thethreads. The sickle bar comprises a fixed cutting member 60 supported atits ends by blocks 62 and formed with a serrated leading edge 64.Mounted flush to the underside of the member 60 and slidably mounted inthe blocks 62 is a second cutting member 66 also having a serratedleading edge 68. One end of the cutting member 66 is connected to asuitable oscillating drive mechanism 70 whereby the member 66 may bereciprocated back and forth to provide a positive cutting action forthreads carried against the serrated edges.

Referring now more particularly to FIG. 8, there is illustrated afurther modification of the invention and in this embodiment a threadtrimming apparatus is mounted on a frame 72 which may be located betweena scray and a shearing mechanism. Typically, the web 10 is roven over atension roll 74 for regulating the cloth tension, thence under an idlerroll 76 and over another idler roll 78. As the fabric moves verticallydownward it passes first into contact with a diagonally mounted layingbrush 80 which will arrange all of the loose hanging threads 82 into thesame diagonal position. Approximately three feet or so below the layingbrush 80 is located a snagging brush 84 which picks up the threads 82 inthe manner previously described for trimming by the knife edge 86. Thetrimmed material is then carried down between a pair of guide rollers 88under an idler roll 90 to the shearing mechanism.

In the FIG. 8 embodiment, an automatic cleaning mechanism is providedfor the snagging brush. Normally, after the thread is snipped by theknife edge 86, the severed threadwill wrap itself around the snaggingbrush and after a sufficient amount has accumulated, it would normallybe necessary to stop the machine .and the operator would have to outalong the core of the snagging brush between the brush sectors and thuspeel off the accumulated threads. In order to eliminate thisintermittent stopping of the machine a cleaning brush 92 is mounted tomesh with the outer periphery of the snagging brush 84 in order to pickoff each of the severed threads 82 so that they may be carried awaythrough a vacuum exhaust hood 94. The cleaning brush 92 typically is ofa construction similar to the laying brush 80 having straight wirebristles and is rotated in a clockwise direction so that the cleaningand snagging brushes will mesh in the same direction to facilitateremoval of the severed threads.

In practice, the cleaning brush rotates faster than the snagging brushand is positioned above and slightly behind the snagging brush. Thepoints of the cleaning brush wires dip slightly into the sloping set ofwires of the snagging brush whereby they will strap the threads from thebent wires. The flexible characteristics of the wire will snap thesevered threads into the exhaust hood 94 and out through a collector. Ahousing 96 normally will enclose as far as possible the rotatingcleaning brush.

Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 9 and 10, there is illustrateda safety mechanism for insuring that the proper surface of the fabric 10always appears on the same side as it is advanced through the threadsnipping station. As the cloth is woven on the loom, it is rolled up ona core 98. When the roll is fully Wound it is transferred from the loomto an unwinding cradle 100 where the leading end is sewn to the trailingend of a preceding section of cloth and the joined pieces are carriedthrough various finishing operations such as shearing and the like. Thecradle 100, as shown in FIG. 9, is located below a railway sewingmachine 102 which is adapted to traverse the fabric for joining the endsof two sections. In order to insure that the web 10 is unwound from theleft-hand side of the roll so that the proper surface will be upward, aswinging idler roll 104 is mounted to a frame 106 by means of link arms108. Springs 110 normally urge the idler roll 104 outwardly in acounterclockwise direction and away from a normally open switch 112 incircuit with a motor 114 which drives the cloth.

When the web is unwound from the left-hand side of the roll in themanner shown in FIG. 9, it will wrap over the idler roll 104 as it iscarried up and around on idler roll 116. The weight of the fabric rollin conjunction with the tension applied to the fabric as it is advancedto the machine, will bias the roll 104 clockwise to close the switch 112and thereby energize the motor 114. It will be noted that the idler roll104 is located in such a position that if the cloth roll were placed inbackwards so that the web were unwound from the right-hand side, the Webwould not pass over the idler roll 104 and the switch 112 would remainopen preventing operation of the machine. Thus, it is necessary for theoperator to place the cloth roll in the cradle with the proper side out.

This arrangement has several added advantages. First of all, when theroll of fabric reaches the end, the tension on the Web will be releasedcausing the idler roll 104 to swing out and open the switch thusautomatically stopping the motor and the advance of the cloth. Theoperator can then sew the end of the cloth to the leading edge of thenext roll of cloth which will be placed in the cradle. The device thusserves as an automatic stop for the cloth when it becomes fully unwound.Secondly, there is no danger of the core flying out from the cradle whenthe roll is completely unwound. It has happened on various occasionsthat when a roll of cloth is placed backwards into a cradle, the core isflipped out of the cradle by the action of the web which is beingunwound at a high rate of speed when it reaches the end of the roll.That danger is no longer present since the machine can operate only whenthe roll is placed properly in the cradle. Also, with the roll in theposition shown in FIG. 9, the unwinding action will tend to drive thecore downwardly rather than upwardly particularly when the end of thematerial is reached.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to theillustrated embodiments it will be understood that numerousmodifications thereto Will appear to those skilled in the art. Also itwill be understood that the above description and accompanping drawingsshould be taken as illustrative of the invention and not in a limitingsense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to obtain byLetters Patent of the United States is:

1. Apparatus for trimming relatively long threads attached at one end toa traveling woven web, comprising a first rotary brush tangent to thesurface of said web and extending across said web, means for rotatingsaid brush in a direction opposite to the movement of said web wherebysaid threads will all be arranged with their attached ends leading theirfree ends, a second rotary brush spaced rearwardly of said first brushand extending transversely of said web, said second brush being formedwith a plurality of bristles clustered in spaced radial sectors,

the bristles of each sector continuously and uniformly extending thefull length of said brush and adjacent sec tors forming a gap lengthwiseof said brush, means for rotating said second brush in the samedirection as the movement of said web and at a higher speed whereby eachof said threads will be picked up and tensioned outwardly of said weband across at least one of said gaps and a cutting member extending inparallel proximity behind said second brush and spaced over said web inposition to sever threads tensioned across said gap.

2. Apparatus for trimming relatively long threads attached at one end toa traveling woven web, comprising a first rotary brush tangent to thesurface of said web and extending diagonally across said web, means forrotating said brush in a direction opposite to the movement of said webwhereby said threads will all be arranged with their attached endsleading their free ends, a second rotary brush spaced rearwardly of saidfirst brush and extending transversely of said Web, said second brushbeing formed with a plurality of bristles clustered in spaced lengthwisesectors and bent forwardly in the direction of rotation, means forrotating said second brush in the same direction as the movement of saidweb and at a higher speed whereby each of said threads will be picked upand tensioned outwardly of said Web, a cutting member extending inparallel proximity behind said sec and brush and over said web forsevering the tensioned threads, a third brush parallel to said secondbrush and in mesh therewith, means for rotating said third brush in adirection opposite to said second brush whereby threads snagged by saidsecond brush will be removed and vacuum means for drawing off theremoved threads.

Reierences Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 18,796 12/1857Whipple 26--15 494,152 3/ 1893 Martinot 26-29 1,880,486 10/1932Richardson 2629 X 2,035,641 3/1936 Dickie et a1 26-27 X 2,149,886 3/1939Hadley 26-15 2,634,065 4/1953 Robinson 24257 3,087,223 4/ 1963 Raw 26273,097,806 7/1963 Darman 242-57 3,119,167 1/1964 Bell et a1 26-153,138,844 6/1964 Levine 2628 X FOREIGN PATENTS 250,234 8/1912 Germany.

12,589 1914 Great Britain. 14,838 1897 Great Britain. 15,925 1901 GreatBritain. 96,649 11/ 1922 Switzerland.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner.

DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner.

1. APPARATUS FOR TRIMMING RELATIVELY LONG THREADS ATTACHED AT ONE END TOA TRAVELING WOVEN WEB, COMPRISING A FIRST ROTARY BRUSH TANGENT TO THESURFACE OF SAID WEB AND EXTENDING ACROSS SAID WEB, MEANS FOR ROTATINGSAID BRUSH IN A DIRECTION OPPOSITE TO THE MOVEMENT OF SAID WEB WHEREBYSAID THREADS WILL ALL BE ARRANGED WITH THEIR ATTACHED ENDS LEADING THEIRFREE ENDS, A SECOND ROTARY BRUSH SPACED REARWARDLY OF SAID FIRST BRUSHAND EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF SAID WEB, SAID SECOND BRUSH BEING FORMEDWITH A PLURALITY OF BRISTLES CLUSTERED IN SPACED RADIAL SECTORS, THEBRISTLES OF EACH SECTOR CONTINUOUSLY AND UNIFORMLY EXTENDING THE FULLLENGTH OF SAID BRUSH AND ADJACENT SECTORS FORMING A GAP LENGTHWISE OFSAID BRUSH, MEANS FOR ROTATING SAID SECOND BRUSH IN THE SAME DIRECTIONAS THE MOVEMENT OF SAID WEB AND AT A HIGHER SPEED WHEREBY EACH OF SAIDTHREADS WILL BE PICKED UP AND TENSIONED OUTWARDLY OF SAID WEB AND ACROSSAT LEAST ONE OF SAID GAPS AND A CUTTING MEMBER EXTENDING IN PARALLELPROXIMITY BEHIND SAID SECOND BRUSH AND SPACED OVER SAID WEB IN POSITIONTO SEVER THREADS TENSIONED ACROSS SAID GAP.